NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 177 



the top, and like half a deep dish : this nest is lined with fine 

 grasses, and feathers, which are often collected as they float in 

 the air. 



Wonderful is the address which this adroit bird shows all day 

 long in ascending and descending with security through so narrow 

 a pass. When hovering over the mouth of the funnel, the vibra- 

 tions of her wings acting on the confined air occasion a rumbling 

 like thunder. It is not improbable that the dam submits to this 

 inconvenient situation so low in the shaft, in order to secure her 

 broods from rapacious birds, and particularly from owls, which 

 frequently fall down chimneys, perhaps in attempting to get at 

 these nestlings. 



The swallow lays from four to six white eggs, dotted with red 

 specks; and brings out her first brood about the last week in 

 June, or the first week in July. The progressive method by 

 which the young are introduced into life is very amusing : first, 

 they emerge from the shaft with difficulty enough, and often fall 

 down into the rooms below : for a day or so they are fed on the 

 chimney-top, and then are conducted to the dead leafless bough 

 of some tree, where, sitting in a row, they are attended with great 

 assiduity, and may then be called perchers. In a day or two 

 more they become flyers, but are still unable to take their own 

 food ; therefore they play about near the place where the dams 

 are hawking for flies ; and, when a mouthful is collected, at a 

 certain signal given, the dam and the nestling advance, rising 

 towards each other, and meeting at an angle; the young one 

 all the while uttering such a little quick note of gratitude and 

 complacency, that a person must have paid very little regard to 

 the wonders of Nature that has not often remarked this feat. 



The dam betakes herself immediately to the business of a 

 second brood as soon as she is disengaged from her first ; which 

 at once associates with the first broods of house-martins ; and 

 with them congregates, clustering on sunny roofs, towers, and 

 trees. This hirundo brings out her second brood towards the 

 middle and end of August. 



All the summer long is the swallow a most instructive pattern 

 01 unwearied industry and affection ; for, from morning to night, 



